


Robert Week 2018

by thesnowyswan



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, M/M, Porn with Feelings, Pride, Robert Week 2018, Soul Bond, Wedding 2.0, idk lbr i'm just try'na live my life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-06 21:41:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15894681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesnowyswan/pseuds/thesnowyswan
Summary: My collection of fics written for Robert Week (4th-11th September) 2018.Chapters will be a variety of ratings.





	1. Missing Scene

Aaron has always liked Andy. He’s the upfront sort, made a few mistakes but he’s learning to live by them. He gets that. But the more he gets to know Robert, the more he realises that his brother just seems to have a direct blind spot to Robert’s feelings. Maybe it’s because they’re not built the same way. If Robert can keep a secret he will because that’s all he’s ever done, squirrelling away what he thinks he might need for a rainy day. He also hides himself away. If people can’t figure him out, he won’t give them answers. Even if it hurts him.

And despite all of it: their mum, Katie, everything that has gone on with the Whites, they love each other. They wouldn’t fight like they do if they didn’t. Robert just wants, so desperately, to be seen as Andy’s equal. Only to anyone who doesn’t know him, it looks like he wants to be better. To his own brother, it looks like that.

Watching Robert get up in the morning to make more plans, discover new ways to help Andy warms Aaron’s heart, but it also makes it ache for him. He sees the stress Robert puts on himself to help Andy because Diane and Victoria are worried about him, but not Robert. So, Aaron does what he can. He makes Robert sit at the table with him to eat breakfast, even if it’s just one slice of toast. He puts it in front of his boyfriend and squeezes his shoulder when he takes a bite before sitting down to his own.

Aaron’s also quite aware of the toll it’s taking on them. Robert at best is slightly manic, popping up here, there and everywhere, at his worst, Aaron doesn’t see him for most of the afternoon and he crawls into their bed when Aaron’s already in it and half sleep before they have a cuddle and he falls into fitful dreams. It’s like being in a relationship with a ghost. Not to mention the tension it’s caused between them because Aaron doesn’t agree with Andy going on the run. Nothing good ever comes of it and he’s got kids to think about.

It all upends itself when Robert helps get Andy out of the country. He’s got him a new passport, some clothes and even Aaron feels his heart seize when he hears that the police are chasing down Andy in the woods and Robert throws himself into action.

“Be careful, alright?” He tells him as Robert gives him a quick kiss on the mouth. He can’t stop him, he won’t stop him, so all he can do is put it in his brain to not make any crazy decisions and _to come home_.

“It’ll be fine.”

“Drive safe.” It’s a stupid thing to say as he’s got sod all time to get to his brother and Aaron can practically see him hurtling down the roads, but Aaron doesn’t care about that. Not when Robert’s safety is on the line.

He keeps watch to see what’s going on and to keep Robert aware. He feels powerless, but he believes in Robert.

 

***

 

His back is tense as he shakes his leg, waiting and waiting for Robert to come back. Robert comes in with a smile of a victor.

“I got him out.”

Aaron stands up and brushes his hands over Robert’s shirt, “Good.”

“I know you don’t agree with me about—”

“I don’t care, Robert, he’s your brother, it’s just this, it’ll be worse for ‘im if we can't sort it out. He’ll have to face absconding ‘n all that.”

“He will, and he will get out of this because I’m gonna make sure of it.” Robert stares him down and Aaron sighs.

“C’mon, let’s go to bed, I’m knackered.”

It’s not late by any stretch of the imagination, but Aaron needs this. He needs to take Robert upstairs and just be with him. He takes his clothes off and puts his pyjamas on, Robert doing the same and they get on the bed, Aaron snuggling up to Robert’s side as Robert rubs his back between his shoulder blades.

It’s not long before Robert lets out a big exhale, the weight of the day finally getting to him. He’s said goodbye to his brother, possibly forever, and they had a confusing enough relationship as it was.

Aaron just puts his palm over Robert’s stomach and rubs it gently. All he can do is be here and wait if Robert wants to talk, and realistically he knows Robert never wants to talk. He never wants to expose himself to being viewed as what he perceives as lesser.

He gets a kiss pressed to his forehead and Robert shuffles so that they’re facing each other on their sides. Aaron tucks his arm up under his head and frees Robert to do the same.

Aaron watches as Robert’s eyes slowly redden and start to glisten with unshed tears. He doesn’t say anything, he knows it’ll force Robert to retreat, so he brushes his fingers over his bicep before cupping his elbow with a steady touch for him to hold onto. Aaron moves so that they’re closer together, their chests almost against each other and he kisses the underside of Robert’s jaw.

“You did everything you could,” He slips his hand over Robert’s waist to tuck it up under his t-shirt. “You did everything, Robert.”

Robert just folds himself into the nook of Aaron’s neck and he can feel wetness seeping onto his skin as he glides his fingers up and down. All the tension, all the frustration comes out in Robert’s silent, body-wracking sobs. Aaron shifts his hand from under Robert’s top to hold the back of his head, encouraging him with his body to keep going, to keep letting it out.

“I’m proud of ya.”

Robert wipes his face with his hand, and as if it never happened, he puts his head back on his pillow and looks at Aaron. Aaron doesn’t let him get away with it. He still has a tear on his cheek, almost at his mouth, and Aaron brushes it away with his thumb.

It’s the most natural thing to him to let Robert kiss him when he leans forward, to reinforce his words with his kiss, gentling Robert’s increasing desperation as he grabs onto Aaron’s shoulder.

Aaron pulls away, “Hey, easy.”

He lets Robert push him onto his back and spread his thighs to lie between them, their lips catching as Robert tries to pull his top up and Aaron doesn’t help him.

Aaron gets his hands under Robert’s pants and he pushes them off his bum before he tilts his pelvis up and takes off his own. Robert lies down on his chest, pressing them together, trapping their groins just off-centre. The feeling of skin mixed in with the soft drag of their clothes is pleasing and Aaron softly bites at Robert’s mouth as he wraps his arms around his shoulders, Robert slowly curling his hips up.

Robert breaks their kiss with smaller kisses leading away from Aaron’s mouth; the corner of it, his cheek, just on the curve of his jaw.

“Turn over.”

It’s a simple request that Aaron could choose to deny, but he won’t. He doesn’t adjust his clothes, just waits until Robert gets up off him enough that he can roll onto his belly. One big hand squeezes his bum, parting one cheek as lips touch the back of his neck.

Aaron does little more than suggest: “Drawer.”

He’s left alone for a second and he gets himself up onto his elbows, his back bowed as his head drops between his shoulders. Cautious fingers probe gently at him and he vocalises what he wants, what he needs, and Robert almost silently gives it to him, his breathing the only thing that changes, getting heavier as his touch gets more certain.

“Come on,” Aaron tells him, _enough now_.

On his front, Aaron can’t tell what’s going on, so it heightens his senses, focuses him entirely on Robert and his movements. He jolts when Robert leans on him, hand pinching his hip, right before he presses his way inside.

Aaron sighs, “Good, more.”

Robert matches his sigh as he wiggles that last bit in. He pushes Aaron’s t-shirt up to the middle of his back, resting on his hands either side of Aaron’s elbows, his mouth perilously close to Aaron’s ear as he breathes. It’s killing his back, so Aaron flops down and tips his bum up, dragging himself over the duvet and he does it again the other way.

He hears Robert exhale harshly and push his hips down to trap Aaron to the bed.

All it takes is one word: “Don’t,” and Robert lets him up.

Aaron can’t help his little grunt as Robert joins him by lying down on along his back. There’s something secret and hidden, doing it like this. He knows that if he could see them, all he would see is the subtle rock of Robert’s hips, obscured by his clothes, that looks like nothing but spreads and widens feeling inside Aaron.

This time when Robert buries his face into his neck, it’s to lick and suck and worry the skin, purple it up with love bites and wanton desire. Robert’s moans disappear into that valley, Aaron building them up in his belly like a coiled spring ready to go. His, he chokes on. Robert hits too deep and strangles it before it ever becomes anything.

His t-shirt is offensive, he wishes he took it off, he wants to feel _more_ , and Robert does him in further with the soft repetition of his name. It’s a smokescreen for everything Robert is really saying: _I love you, I need you, thank you_.

Aaron fists the duvet in his hands, pulling it in as Robert pushes harder and harder, “Fuck, that’s it.”

It is. He’s being split open and held together by the same man, his teeth rattling where he’s clenching them so hard as Robert thrusts.

He drags his forehead down on the bed, moaning into the sheet to try and minimise the sound of it, his orgasm tearing through him as he does. Robert tucks his hands under Aaron’s shoulders and pins him with his hips against his bum as he joins him, his mouth wetly exhaling on Aaron’s t-shirt as he whines. They both shake, Aaron shudders as Robert jerks forward.

He curses again as he spreads his legs apart best he can with his bottoms around his thighs. Robert’s fingers brushing the hair on them in a stroking gesture as they both pant and try to rebalance the world.

Aaron winces as Robert draws out, dropping onto his back next to him. His body feels rung out and well used as Robert touches him, checks he’s alright.

“You’re a good man, Robert.” They’re strong words, even for him, but Aaron needs Robert to hear them and believe him. He’s a good man who, at his core, loves his family. Would do anything for them, would tell any lie to protect them, no matter the circumstance. It’s not something that always works or something that Aaron even agrees with, but he appreciates and loves Robert’s heart. Soft, torn and poorly protected, he touches Robert’s chest because he’s its keeper now.

Robert holds his hand over his own heart, thumb rubbing Aaron’s knuckles before they share one final kiss. Aaron will just have to live with the mess until the morning, he isn’t getting up and he isn’t leaving Robert for one second.

He doesn’t have to though, Robert gets up, pinging the elastic of his pjs up and he goes to the bathroom as Aaron pulls his up and Robert comes back with a warm flannel and two towels.

Robert disposes of the necessaries down the side of the bed before he stops Aaron from lying down, “You know?”

Even with his heart taking a severe battering, Robert is still protecting Aaron’s. Never pushing, never pressuring.

“I know.” Aaron tells him without a single doubt. They reconfigure themselves into their first sleep position, with Aaron lying against Robert’s side, only now he holds his hand against Robert’s neck, feeling the steady thrum of his pulse under his palm.

_Robert, you’re enough._

_I love you_.

He thinks about saying it, but when he looks up, Robert’s face is slack with sleep. Peaceful for the first time in a while.

 _You can wait? So can I_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a mishmash of me trying to do Day 1 and write a fic for [illgetmerope](https://illgetmerope.tumblr.com), who you have to check out, after she created some outstanding art based on a discussion we (and Susie) were having on tumblr. Seriously, go forth, enjoy. You won't regret it.


	2. Emotional Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wedding planning is going on in full force and Robert likes to keep everyone abreast of the situation.
> 
> Please be aware this is set vaguely in spoilers for future events.

Last time, Robert didn’t get to say anything. He had twenty-four mad hours to plan a wedding and to get it done. This time, a week before, he gets a small mock-up of their flower/table arrangements and he fiddles with the navy ribbon tied around the base as Aaron rubs his thigh. He’s hovering, in part because he’s waiting in case Robert changes his mind, and the other part is because barely ten days ago he was seizing on their living room floor.

He doesn’t remember it. It’s a black hole, a brain blackout, a big nothing to see here for him. Waking up on another hospital gurney instead of being indoors was new. He tipped over and almost off the bed before Aaron grabbed his arm to steady him, his face familiar in the sea of insipid brightness.

Still, it won’t stop Robert, he’s got things to do.

He gets out the car. Aaron, their driver for the foreseeable future, waves him off as he makes his way to where he needs to go 

***

“Hi, Mum, brought you one of the flower arrangements,” Robert puts it down in front of her headstone, touching the ribbon once again so that it lays nicely against the stems. “What’d’ya think?”

There’s a bit of a bite to the wind, not harsh, but Robert feels it along his ribs as he sits cross-legged in front of his mum’s grave.

“We’re a week out now. Everything is pretty much sorted, suits are being picked up later. We’re just waiting on Vic to make the cake the day before,” Robert sees a little weed by his foot, so he pulls it out and throws it away over his shoulder.

“Mum…” Robert sighs, “I wish you were here.”

He always does, that’s how it is. He aches for her and the things she’ll never see, the hugs Robert will never get from her.

“I wish you got to meet Aaron. And Seb, and Liv.” _My family_.

“Aaron, he’s—he’s like from a story. No, not hugely romantic, not unless he wants to be, but,” Robert licks his lips and smiles, “He’s someone you have to uncover through the pages. And I’m lucky enough that he loves me back.”

“I want to be worthy of him, Mum.”

It’s hard to not want to tuck up and hide.

“I love him so much. It’s in every part of me.”

It’s a cold headstone, but he imagines her brushing back the hair off his forehead like she used to before she kissed the top of his head.

“He makes me better. He takes care of me. He’s Aaron.”

He feels daft saying that, but there is so much he can’t say about his soon-to-be husband again.

“I’m sure that you would have liked him.”

Mum would have loved how happy Robert is. How if she was kind to Aaron, he’d blush faintly and grumble because it’s not in his nature to be soppy with anyone other than Robert, but he’d never want to be rude to her. Robert could imagine her teasing Aaron for days on end.

“I guess…”

“I guess I just wanted to share this with you. Our wedding. That way it was almost like you were here.”

Robert checks the ribbon one last time, still laying flat, and he touches the top of his mum’s headstone as he stands up.

He turns to see Aaron walking between the stones towards him, and as much as he said that he could do this, he smiles at Aaron with a watery smile.

“Alright?” Aaron asks him softly as he wraps his arm around Robert’s waist.

“Yeah, just keeping Mum updated about the flowers and the cake.”

“Good.”

He presses his cheek into Aaron’s kiss on it and lets his head rest on the side of his as they both take in his mum’s plot.

“You don’t think—” _it’s mad?_ He starts, and Aaron rubs his hand on his back.

“No.”

With one word, one bit of reassurance, Robert feels lighter. Sitting on the grass talking to his dead mum isn’t weird. Aaron supports him.

Aaron lets his hand catch on the pocket of Robert’s coat as he slips forward to touch the stone too. It makes Robert’s heart swell because he didn’t have to. It’s like he’s saying hi and bye to her too. Acknowledging her place in Robert’s life, even if she isn’t here anymore.

He lets Aaron lead him away with one last look, and it’s bittersweet. It’s not raw and pulpy like it used to be, like an exposed and shockable nerve. Having his own family has put a balm on a lot of his hurts and gotten him to a place where it’s better.

They hold hands on the walk back to the car and Robert looks in the direction of where his mum is laid to rest.

 _I’ll come back, and I’ll tell you about the wedding when it’s done, alright? You’re not forgotten. I love you_.


	3. Free Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teacher!AU, but not the one you're expecting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to write for Robert Week today but I had zero time and so this is not my best, and honestly, I'll probably take it down, but I tried.

Very few things will go down in history as well documented as the autumn term when two of the teachers at Hotten High School, Mr Dingle and Mr Sugden, got engaged.

*

Mr Sugden was a new English and Maths transfer two years ago, he’d been teaching down in London but came home to be with his family.

The Chinese whispers about him are insane.

 _“Did you hear? Mr Sugden had an affair with his brother’s_ wife _; that’s why he left.”_

 _“She was going to marry_ _him_.”

“No.”

 _“They say he_ killed _a bloke.”_

_*_

None could have expected when he popped his head around the door, “Can I borrow a whiteboard marker?”

Mr Dingle, Hotten’s resident geography teacher, sits with his feet up on his desk as per usual, swivelling around with his normal amount of cold disdain, “No.”

“Why? It’s just a board marker.”

“Get your own.”

“ _Really_?”

The intake of breath in the room was palpable as Mr Dingle took his feet down, stood up, walked over to the door where Mr Sugden had his head poked through, shoved him out before closing the door abruptly after him.

“Someone tell me about erosion and its effects on the coastline,” he said as he turned back around to his class.

Tallulah at the front gulped and took one for the team, raising her hand, “The rocks will collapse eventually?”

No further attempts to knock at Mr Dingle’s classroom were made, but the gossip that came from it turned it into _a thing_.

*

 

 _Something_ Robert laughed about as he flopped on his settee at home, Aaron sat with his pile of exercise books to mark and leaning into where Robert is circling the shell of his ear.

“You’re terrible, won’t lend me a stupid pen,” he teases and Aaron shrugs without looking up.

“Gotta get you trained, everyone in that place steals everything,” Aaron closes the book he has open and accepts the kiss that Robert gives him. They’ve been together two years, living together for almost all of it. Aaron said they were basically lesbians.

“Uh-huh, and that in front of the kids?”

Aaron tries to contain his smile.

“You’re not as hard as you think.”

Proved in the fact when Robert takes his work and puts it on the table, sliding into the tight space next to his boyfriend and drags his attention away for a good twenty minutes on other extracurricular activities.

 

*

“Mr Sugden?” Ben from his Year 8 9 o’clock Maths class asks as Robert tries to blink his bleary eyes open. He’s got a travel cup of liquid sludge, made courtesy of Aaron while he was munching on his breakfast and Robert was slothing about in his jogging bottoms at 6 this morning. _Is he getting a cold?_ Could be. Normally it’s Aaron who has to be teased out of bed with cooked breakfasts and sly promises.

He wonders if he could get one of those out of him.

Robert realises that Ben is still staring at him, “What is it, Ben?”

“Uh, Mr Dingle is glaring at you.”

He frowns and looks out the small window into his class. True enough, Aaron is standing with his hands on his hips outside.

“Got it,” Robert stands up and takes his cup with him, opening the door, “What?”

It comes out more aggressive than he intends it to, but Aaron ignores him and closes the door, shutting them both outside of the classroom.

“I left my keys at home.”

They carpool until they get to around the corner, their department offices are actually on separate sides of the school, Aaron getting out and walking ‘round.

“I can give you mine, or—” Robert offers, turning back.

Aaron grabs his arm, “No, you’ll just have to wait for me, I have the boys football match.”

“Okay, text me when you can.”

Robert almost leans forward to kiss Aaron goodbye and he stops himself, but when he opens his eyes, Aaron is frowning at him.

He shakes his head, “Rough morning.”

“Drink ya coffee,” Aaron pushes him with gentle fingers on his stomach. He gives Robert a little nod and heads back to his classroom.

Robert turns back to open the door and he’s stopped by the pin drop silence as his kids stare at him.

“What?”

Thirty pairs of eyes suddenly make themselves busy elsewhere. He shakes his head, “Okay, let’s get this register done, alright?”

 

 

Mr Dingle comes to the Year 10s 10 o’clock class and it’s silent.

He’s just as distasteful about everything as usual, but his cup. Well, _it’s gay_.

Not a rainbow or an allusion, it literally says: _not interested in being heterosexual_ in bold text.

As if he can feel the eyes on his cup, Mr Dingle sits on his chair. It’s like a dare. Steve who always sits in the back row being a dick looks like he’s sweating with the urge to say something, but he won’t. Not to Mr Dingle. As much as he’s a hard nut to crack, he has the respect of all of his students.

There is a sigh of relief that passes through the room when Mr Dingle turns to the whiteboard and starts talking about tidal currents.

 

Robert loses it with his students by lunch, they came in from their break and they will not settle. He wracks his brains to what might have gone on. Year 10s, some sort of science first thing, geography at 10.

 _Aaron_.

Robert sighs. Sometimes Aaron in his utter disregard of everything attracts more attention than is necessary.

“Alright, settle down!” He opens up his copy of Romeo and Juliet and picks up during Romeo and Tybalt’s fight.

There’s still some whispering at the back, but Robert can take it.

*

Luke, the Year 11 captain of the boy’s football team, hears about Mr Dingle through his mate George whose brother is in Year 10.

“D’ya hear? Mr Dingle’s gay.”

“Did he say he was gay though?” Luke asks as they’re getting sorted for their game.

“You saying he isn’t?” George puts on his boots and starts to lace them up.

“No, I’m just sayin’ until he says it, that’s his business.”

Mr Dingle comes into the locker room as he says it and they look at each other. There’s a sort of understanding that passes between them and it feels like a lot. Luke feels it weigh on his shoulders, so he stands up straighter as Mr Dingle wipes his nose.

“Let’s get goin’ lads, ain’t got all day.”

Peter Kalen from Year 9, a weed in boots folds his arms, “Are you gay, sir?”

Mr Dingle mirrors him, “Are you?”

“No, sir.”

“Would it matter to this game we’re about to play?”

“…no, sir.”

“Then put it away.”

Luke waves the boys on, “You heard ‘im, let’s get to it.”

*

 

Robert stands on the sidelines as the boys kick the ball about, hands tucked into his pockets because he wished he was wearing more than his blazer.

Aaron’s got his kit on, shorts, t-shirt, looking entirely too fit and not at all warm.

“Nice legs,” He jibes loudly as Aaron runs past him.

Aaron mouths ‘fuck off’ back at him and carries on down the pitch.

Robert isn’t prepared for the shitstorm.

 

“Are you homophobic, sir?”

Robert blinks as Lacey from 11B stands in front of him with her book for marking the next day.

“What?”

“Making fun of Mr Dingle, he’s gay.”

There’s a twitter of whispering and George from last night’s kickabout scoffs, “He didn’t say he was gay.”

“He has a gay mug,” She turns on George and George puts all four legs of his chair on the floor for the first time this term.

“I have a gay uncle, all his mugs are gay, I ain’t gay if I use one.”

Robert feels his stomach drop. He thinks he knows what this is. He bought Aaron a novelty mug for his birthday this year because it suited his mood and Aaron’s attitude. _Not interested in being heterosexual_. Aaron got him back by buying him a bisexual unicorn mug from Amazon.

“George is right,” Robert hedges, Aaron didn’t mention it when they got home last night, so he doesn’t know how Aaron wants to proceed, “If Mr Dingle is or isn’t gay that’s his business and we shouldn’t tolerate homophobic language or behaviour.”

“And Lacey, you’re right, if you’re referring to my jesting towards Mr Dingle at the match yesterday, I wasn’t intending to be homophobic, but to have fun with a colleague.”

“So, you’re not homophobic?” Lacey asks him again.

Robert spent this year’s Pride in Leeds covered in glitter and snogging Aaron’s face off, “I’d like to think I’m not, but we have to be wary of our behaviour and how it affects others. Which is why it’s better _to ask_ and not speculate.”

George looks smugly at Lacey and she flips her hair over her shoulder as she passes him, and Robert expects that they’ll be together by the end of next term.

 

Robert makes it his mission to go to the sciences faculty room. Aaron is leaning on the kitchen counter talking to one of the science teachers, Lydia.

“Oh hi, Robert,” Lydia smiles as she leaves them to it.

“Didn’t know you came out yesterday,” he says as Aaron turns to put down his mug. Not his ‘gay’ mug, his regular footie mug.

“I didn’t say anything,” Aaron points out and Robert rolls his eyes.

“It’s good as written.”

“Can’t bollock me for it.”

And that’s the truth of it. The kids, they can whisper and speculate all they like, but the moment they have something concrete to take home to their parents, that’s when the problems start. Robert can already hear the objections:

 _“I don’t want someone like_ him _teaching our kids.”_

Like Aaron is dirty and ‘infecting’ their kids. It makes Robert queasy to even think about, and Aaron, his football team, he could lose it all if the parents came down against him.

“Why didn’t you say something?” He asks as he rubs Aaron’s arm.

“No point in worrying about it. Either I come out and it’s fine or I come out and it’s shit.”

Robert squeezes his elbow, “You are then?”

Aaron sighs, “Not sure I can avoid it.”

Robert leans to kiss Aaron’s forehead and stays there when Aaron rests his forehead on Robert’s chin. He mumbles ‘love you’ the best he can, and Aaron wraps his arms around Robert’s waist, head moving under Robert’s chin.

*

 

Luke hangs back after his final lesson to stand outside Mr Dingle’s classroom. He frowns and opens up the door, “Luke?”

“Mr Dingle.”

He steps aside, holding his tie as Luke passes him to sit on one of the tables in front of his desk.

“I don’t care if you’re gay. You’re a great coach.”

Mr Dingle laughs, it’s weird because he doesn’t even look like a teacher when he laughs, or when he plays football. He’s just…Mr Dingle.

“It’s good that you’re accepting,” Mr Dingle sits on the corner of his desk, “The other lads could learn a lot.”

“George was defending you to Lacey, and Mr Sugden.”

“Mr Sugden?”

“For what he said at the game, ‘bout your legs.”

“Oh, that. That’s just the way he is.”

Luke feels his axis tilt a bit with that knowledge, “You hang out with Mr Sugden?”

Mr Dingle laughs again, “Yeah, I even call him by his first name.”

“Ryan?” Luke guesses, his nameplate says R Sugden.

“Close, what d’ya think mine is?”

A Dingle.

“Andrew?”

“Not even close.” Mr Dingle shuffles some exercise books and pulls out one and hands it to him, “Not bad. It’ll be better when you stop pretending you’re stupid.”

Luke looks down. His dream is football. Everyone keeps telling him he’s the best in school and he wants that to be his life, but he isn’t sure it’s for him.

“Sir?”

Mr Dingle hums, “Yeah?”

“D’you have someone?”

There’s a silence.

Luke tries again, “Do you have someone you love?”

“Yeah, yeah I do.”

He picks up his bag and stuffs his book inside. Mr Dingle clears his throat, “Luke, d’you have someone…someone that you like?”

Luke thinks back to that moment, that moment where Mr Dingle trusted him to set the other boys straight, with what, Luke thinks this will confirm it.

“Yeah. I do.”

“You can always talk to me, y’know,” Mr Dingle bobs his head to catch Luke’s eye.

He feels panic rising in his chest. He’s said too much.

“Hey, hey, look, Luke, I’m not going to tell anyone. It’s not for me to tell, but I’m here.”

“Thanks, sir, see you at practice.”

 

 

Robert is pottering around in his pyjamas when Aaron gets in, “Hey.”

“Hey.”

He looks at his boyfriend and how the world seems to be weighing on his shoulders, “What’s going on?”

“One of my kids, my boys, he pretty much came out to me. Asked me if I had someone.”

Robert remembers being 16 and bisexual, kids are brutal, “He okay?”

“He will be, I guess.”

He also knows where this has put Aaron’s head, “You want to come out, properly.”

“Yeah, I can’t—I can’t let some kid suffer without someone to look up to,” Aaron sighs.

“Want me to get you a big gay banner and some big gay glitter?” Robert asks as he slides his hands down Aaron’s sides.

“Sod off.”

“You’re a good man, Aaron.” They kiss gently, Aaron’s eyes still closed, and Robert just soaks him in. This kind, loving, and selfless man.

It makes the ring in his drawer seem larger and more stark.

“Come on, let’s put the kettle on and watch I’m a Celeb.”

Aaron nods and Robert gives his almost pout a kiss before leading him to the kitchen by the hand.

 

Robert wakes up and rubs his hand down Aaron’s back to wake him up.

Aaron smiles with his eyes closed and Robert falls even more in love with him.

 

 

*

 

Ben from Year 8 hurries down the corridor. He’s late, the class has started, he’s dying inside to have to go into Mr Sugden’s quiet classroom and have to explain why he’s late.

There is deathly silence.

Ben doesn’t get it, it’s never this bad.

He zeroes in on Mr Sugden’s desk. He’s using a mug that says: _not interested in being heterosexual_. Mr Dingle’s mug.

Or is it Mr Sugden’s and Mr Dingle borrowed it? Or it neither of theirs and someone else’s?

“Ben, join us, I don’t care why you’re late, sit down,” Mr Sugden waves him in and drinks some of his coffee.

It’s pandemonium after that.

_“Did you see?”_

_“Mr Sugden had Mr Dingle’s mug.”_

_“Is it Mr Dingle’s mug?”_

_“Is it Mr Sugden’s? Are they gay?”_

_“Are they gay together?_

_“‘Are they gay together?’ Ya knob.”_

_“You know what I mean,_ are they a couple _?”_

Robert drinks his second cup of coffee and Aaron comes to ‘borrow a pen’. He sees it too.

“Mr Dingle, can I help you?”

All eyes are on them, it’s the Year 9s preparing for their CATs, highly hormonal, he’s already had to chuck out two for being gobby little shits.

“Yeah, I want my mug back.”

He sips more of his drink and Aaron narrows his eyes. The kids don’t know what to believe. After the pen incident, is this another fight? Or is this a lover’s quarrel?

“I’m using it at the moment.”

Aaron puts his hands on his hips, “I’ll wait.”

Someone’s getting shagged tonight, Robert can feel it. Aaron’s eyes look him up and down and it’s that look of absolute disinterest that attracted Robert in the first place. He loves a challenge.

Robert puts the cup down and gets out his diary to check what he has going on. The kids whisper about it being ‘a power move’, and Robert tries not to laugh at them.

They don’t know Aaron, so they all look in horror as Aaron picks up the cup, goes over to the sink in the corner, tips Robert’s coffee out and takes the mug back.

Robert pretends to glare when he hears one of them say, “Next level power move.”

 

Aaron grabs him in the faculty toilets on their floor, door locked and Robert’s back hitting the closed stall door.

“You took my cup.”

He nods and pulls at Aaron’s shirt, no time for a quickie, but he wants to get his hands on that skin he loves so much.

“What are you playin’ at?” Aaron asks him as he tips his head to the side as Robert licks and bites his neck.

Robert works his way back up, kissing every inch of skin back to Aaron’s mouth, “Solidarity.”

Aaron holds his face away with both hands, his eyes searching Robert’s face, “Soft lad.”

“I love you.”

Aaron shakes his head and shapes the words I love you too into kisses that weaken Robert’s knees and have him gripping Aaron’s arms just to say afloat.

 

*

 

Aaron’s Year 10 geography class are now his Year 10 English class and Robert is having none of it.

“SIT DOWN!” He shouts. He doesn’t like to, but they’re running riot like this is a social and not a fucking classroom.

It goes from bad to worse when one of them, Tim, asks Robert if he’s a fag and he calmly and collectedly picks up Tim’s stuff and takes it outside.

“I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt on this and just give you detention—” Robert tells him, and Tim looks over Robert’s shoulder like he’s not even listening. “Hey! Calling people derogatory names isn’t cool, it isn’t big, _grow up_.”

“Whatever.”

“No, not whatever, you won’t speak like it in my classroom.”

Tim rolls his eyes and Robert just knows he’s been raised like this. Got a parent or both who just look down on everyone and everything that isn’t exactly the same as them.

“Heaven forbid you ever feel the discrimination that other people face because you would not cope. Get out of my sight.”

 

 

They had planned on Aaron being in trouble, possibly losing his team, they didn’t plan on Robert being hauled up in front of the headteacher.

It’s not so bad because it’s Aaron’s uncle, Cain, but he looks disapprovingly at Robert. At least, he thinks so, Cain’s face never changes around him.

“What you doin’, Robert?” Cain throws his hands up at him, but Robert won’t bow.

“Asked me if I was a fag and I told him his fortune,” Robert screws his eyes shut and pinches the bridge of his nose, “I know I shouldn’t’ve, but what if he had gone to Aaron and called him that?”

“Aaron’s a big lad.”

“Yeah, but it was better it was me, right?”

Cain shrugs, “At this point, he’s done nothing, and you’ve mouthed off at a kid.”

“You’ll back him up though? If he comes out?” Robert puts his hands on Cain’s desk and ignores his glare.

“He’s my nephew, anything I do will be seen as bias.”

Robert tuts and shakes his head, “So it won’t matter if you back his side then.”

Cain folds his arms, “The fact you even thought otherwise.”

Robert does feel chastised by that. Cain has been nothing but supportive of them and their relationship. He was the one who invited Robert to apply when he came home and found something worth staying for in his nephew. More like he was hit by a bulldozer of feelings and he never wanted to be anywhere else since.

“You too.”

He looks up, Cain doesn’t owe him that fealty, but he’s doing it for Aaron. Because Aaron loves him.

“Thanks.”

“Get out, look depressed or summat.”

 

 

Robert sees Aaron pacing and he grabs hold of Robert’s arms when he comes out.

“It’s alright, Cain read me the riot act.”

“Robert, you can’t just—”

“I know, but he was one of _them_ , raised like it.”

“Doesn’t matter. Just be on your best behaviour now, yeah?”

He desperately wants to kiss Aaron, but he can’t, so he smiles at him and Aaron smiles back. _Later_.

 

*

Luke hears about Tim and Mr Sugden. He’s mouthing off on the tennis courts about how his dad called the headteacher and got him shouted at.

Tim sees him looking and he gives him one of those ‘and what?’ faces.

“You wanna be a twat, go ahead, don’t expect me to congratulate ya.”

It does the exact thing Luke doesn’t want it to, it blows back and Tim riles everyone up, “Oh, I see, it’s you, Mr Sugden and Mr Dingle in a three-way.”

Luke knows he should walk away, but the hand gestures make him see red and he launches himself at the other boy and he curls his fist before he knows he’s raised his hand.

Mr Dingle is the one who pulls him off and takes him away. Luke pulls out of his grip with a look of disgust and the shutters go down on Mr Dingle’s face.

“I get it,” is all he says, and he leaves Luke to it.

 

Luke feels worse than scum. Worse than Tim.

He goes about the rest of the day in a haze until he can get his stuff and go to Mr Dingle’s classroom but it’s empty.

Or he thought it was.

“Aaron—”

“No, I get it, being near me is poison, ain’t it?”

There is a rustle of fabric and Luke peeks ‘round to Mr Sugden giving Mr Dingle—Aaron—a hug.

“He’s 16 and trying to get through it. Just like you were, like I was.”

 _Mr Sugden_ is _gay_.

Luke can’t intrude silently on their moment anymore as Mr Dingle buries his face into Mr Sugden’s shoulder. He raps on the door and they spring apart.

“Sir?”

Mr Dingle’s eyes are red-rimmed, but no tears have fallen.

“Luke.”

“I came to say sorry.”

Mr Sugden nudges Mr Dingle and he comes forward, “Is that so?”

“Yeah, Tim, he got to me. I felt—”

“Exposed.” Mr Sugden smiles at him and Luke has never really felt either way about him. The girls like him because he’s got blonde hair and freckles, but to Luke, he’s just another teacher.

“Yeah.”

Mr Dingle tucks his hands into his pockets, “Is that…?”

“Yeah, I just wanted to say sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” Mr Dingle smiles, “Do you need a lift home?”

“No, sir, thanks, my mum’s picking me up.”

“Good, see ya, Luke.”

He turns to go but Mr Dingle starts again, “You’re a good lad.”

“Thanks, sir.”

Luke shuffles his feet, “Sir?”

Mr Dingle waits, “Yeah?”

“Your person—?”

There’s a bit of hesitation, but he relents, “Robert.”

 _R Sugden_.

Mr Sugden looks from him to Mr Dingle and then back.

Luke takes a deep breath, “George.”

It’s where he leaves it because there isn’t much else he can say about it. His mum is coming and she hates when he’s late. He waves and both of them wave back.

Robert watches Luke go and Aaron exhales.

“Is that wise?” Robert questions and Aaron shrugs.

“He needed it. He needed to know.”

“Okay. We should probably get going though.”

Aaron nods, grabbing his laptop bag. They get to go home and be together. Luke…Luke is pining for a boy he can’t have.

 

*

The boys have another match but this time rather than against each other it’s against another local school. It’s all well and good until parents show up at the side of the pitch with signs. Nothing to do with football and everything to do with Aaron’s, and Robert’s, sexuality.

Robert is seething. Tim, the little shit, doesn’t even play football. His dad might have wanted that life for his son, but he’s weak, asthmatic and not a team player. Shocker.

Aaron is on the side of the pitch coaching and a man Robert could only describe as Tim’s father shouts abuse at him. Some of the boys from both schools turn to look, but Aaron waves them on. The game is what’s important.

Luke’s footwork is brilliant, he manages to score three times before half-time and everyone is patting him on the back.

“Good job, Luke.” Aaron smiles, and Tim’s father says probably the worse thing he could ever say to Aaron.

“Now look, the queer likes to touch kids.”

Robert watches Aaron freeze, his movements syrupy as he tries to understand if what he heard was what he heard.

It’s such a shock, neither one of them see Luke launch himself at the grown man and punch him straight in the face.

It’s like lighting a match. All the other boys pile in and Robert runs over to help as they dog pile Tim’s father.

They manage to get him up  and he looks at them both like he’s been burned when Robert helps him to his feet.

Luke wipes his nose, “You want to fuck up a fag? Grow a pair.”

He flips him the bird and stalks off. Robert nods to Aaron who, with the boys, goes after Luke.

Robert can see the welt coming up from Luke’s first punch and Tim’s dad prefaces with a ‘don’t touch me.’

He shrugs, “Wouldn’t dream of it. Wouldn’t want to get my queer germs dirty with your foul attitude.”

Tim’s dad’s face turns puce with rage to hear Robert confirm his queerness.

“Thing is, _mate_ , I’m bisexual, so I’ll fuck a bloke then fuck your wife.” He won’t, but it feels great to lay that down for the sputtering and oxygen deprived twatnozzle.

Some of the boys from the other team clap and Robert realises that they could hear him.

“Ta lads, don’t forget, you are who you are…and don’t swear.”

Tim’s dad leaves in a rage, but he leaves. There is some whooping and Robert bites his lip while considering the locker rooms just off the pitch.

The second half gets delayed in the hubbub but it then goes ahead. There is more clapping for Luke when he comes out and he waves his hands and takes a bow, game face firmly on. Robert’s heart breaks, but he knows it won’t be forever. Luke will be free one day.

Luke manages two more goals, and everyone shakes hands and claps backs when it’s said and done. One of the boys from the other side comes over and shakes Robert’s hand.

“My dads are gay and my team are cool about it, there’s no need for all that.”

Robert looks at this skinny runt of a teenager and realises that the future is bright. They’re learning to be better than their elders.

Aaron is celebrating on the pitch pretending to be an aeroplane with the lads and Robert calls him over.

“What?”

Robert wonders if now is the right time.

“I love you,” he says it softly and Aaron looks back at the teens.

Luke is looking at them with a smile, “Looks like it’s getting serious, sirs.”

George picks up on it, “Wait, are you two actually…”

He makes what looks like an ET gesture.

Robert snorts, and he looks at Aaron. Aaron smiles, “Yeah, we are.”

“Boyfriends? Mr Dingle and Mr Sugden are boyfriends!” George shouts and everyone looks at him. Not one of those boys faces change.

Robert puts his hand on Aaron’s arm, “Actually.”

Aaron looks down at his hand, “What?”

“No shit,” George exclaims, and Luke punches him in the stomach.

Robert gets down on one knee, pulling the ring box out of his coat and he’s wholly unprepared, “Aaron—”

“Aaron!” Someone shouts and suddenly everyone, parents, or the ones who weren’t ousted with Tim’s father, included, are staring at them.

“Yes, _Aaron_. Aaron Dingle, my absolutely brilliant boyfriend.”

“Yeah! And what, sir?” Another boy shouts.

He’s regretting this immediately, “I’ve never met anyone like you, these past two years have been the best of my life. I found a home and a family in a place that never felt like that and that’s because of you.”

That gets an ‘aww’.

“I love you so much and I want to keep loving you and honouring you and everything that you are, so—”

“Sooooooo!” That’s George again.

“Will you marry me?”

Aaron, who had been silent through all of it, smiles, “Yeah. Yeah, I will.”

“BIG GAY KISS.”

Aaron turns around as Robert is putting the ring on his finger, “George, shut up!”

Robert stands up and they both hover in each other’s orbit before Robert leans down for a chaste kiss.

There’s more cheering and someone shouts, “G’on my son!”

*

 

The term ends with matching platinum bands on Robert and Aaron’s fingers, Tim’s dad, funnily enough also Robert, gets arrested for assault and intimidation. Luke happily testifies in the summer against him and kisses his fist where he punched him.

He also comes out to the team before their first game in the new year.

George looks down, “You never said anything.”

“Gay uncle, gay mate, it’s a lot, man.”

“Yeah, but _we’re_ mates.”

They hug and Robert watches as Luke smells George’s shirt and looks pained to have to let him go until George can see him and he smiles.

George comes over and asks Robert, “Can I come to your wedding?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“You’re one of my students.”

“Aaron would let me,” George tries to play on knowing Aaron’s first name like it’s going out of fashion.

“ _Mr Dingle_ would not.”

The kids seem to understand it less, knowing that they’re engaged, how they’re a couple. If Robert asks Aaron for something, he’ll simply say no without looking up. Robert brings him a coffee, which he silently takes and drinks.

Some of the girls take him aside to see to it that Aaron is treating him right. It’s heart-warming and heart-breaking.

“Mr Dingle is my perfect equal,” Robert assures them. Aaron rubs his feet after a long day and performs big spoon duties whenever Robert wants him to. Not that he tells them that.

“Yeah, I am,” Aaron says as he cocks his head towards the carpark where Robert’s parked.

Robert grins and follows his fiancé out.

“Love you,” Robert says as he tries to walk and put his face in Aaron’s neck, rubbing his cold nose there.

“We’re already engaged, calm down,” Aaron teases.

“Take me home then, husband-to-be,” Robert chucks Aaron his keys and heads to the passenger side door.

“I liked you better when we weren’t engaged.”

“No, you don’t.”

 

*

In the pitch black of the sciences faculty room after hours, the only thing that has really changed is that next to Aaron’s ‘gay’ mug, lives Robert’s bisexual unicorn.

Everyone likes to call him Bert.


	4. "Don't you own any other items of clothing?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A story about Pride through their years. (set in The Mug of Truth 'verse [aka yesterday's story])

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mia (aaronsugdenhawley) asked me for a Pride fic set during this 'verse so I combined it with today's prompt and a glitter/drag queen discussion with Anna (illgetmerope), who drew an amazing Pride fanart which I will link when I can.

Their first Pride it was all new and exciting between them, so much so that Robert remembers spending most of it on Aaron’s bedroom floor.

 

 

“Don’t you want to go and party with other—?”

“Gays?”

“It’s not just gay people,” Robert laughed as he rolled onto his back.

“’m proud,” Aaron mumbled as he laid his head on Robert’s stomach, his hand cupping Robert’s naked thigh. “Don’t need to put a bunch of rainbow shit on to be.”

“Okay,” Robert agreed and folded his arm up under his head, “Next year we’re going.”

Aaron turned his head to face him, “You think we’ll be together next year?”

It’s definitely too early for this, half of Robert’s stuff loitered around this bedroom like he lives here and distractingly blue eyes pierced him with their intensity so that he can’t lie.

“Yeah, I do.” _Don’t you?_

Robert ached with it, Aaron got up and hooked his leg over Robert’s hips and sat on his thighs as he dropped down onto Robert’s chest for a cuddle.

“Me too.”

Meeting Aaron, what Robert thought was a thick veneer that Aaron put on, disinterest because he didn’t care, the opposite is true. Aaron cares a lot, his soft beating heart so close to the surface that anyone can crack into it if they just took the time to do it.

Robert put a hand on Aaron’s back, drawing a happy little sigh out of him. _No one can have him now. He’s mine_.

 

 *

 

Last year rolled around, and Aaron pretended like he didn’t remember.

“You, me, Pride,” Robert said to him on Monday of that week, carpooling to work.

Robert could literally see Aaron’s brain working to see if he could pretend to be deaf for 5 minutes.

“Come on then, what is it with you and Pride?” Robert asked as he turned in to park up and let Aaron out.

Aaron looked at him, really looked at him, “Not my thing.”

“Okay,” Robert pulled up the handbrake.

“Okay?”

“It’s not for everyone.”

Aaron looked at him suspiciously, sensing a trap.

Robert exhaled, “Being different, some people want to celebrate it, some people want to get on with it, whatever. I like to celebrate it because for a long time I didn’t. Pride is about loving myself and those around me.”

He didn’t say it to make Aaron feel bad, but he looked down like he did.

“Hey, Aaron, no. I’ll just take Vic like I do every year.”                              

Robert leaned over and gave Aaron his usual goodbye kiss and Aaron held his face there longer and pecked him twice after the first kiss finished.

He felt Aaron’s thumb drag at the corner of his mouth, “Bye.”

Aaron nodded and got out of the car.

 

Robert is painting a bisexual flag on his other cheek with makeup Vic lent him. He’s humming some boppy little tune his 2 o’clock Maths class were playing the other day and it’s driving him mad. He suspects he’s about to hear it 50 times today, so he might as well get used to it.

Aaron has been strangely absent this morning. He said he had stuff to do and disappeared after they had breakfast and watched crappy telly in bed with full bellies.

Robert applies some of the glitter he’s got, also from Vic, to the creamy stuff on his face and tries to pat it down so that it sticks. It’s gonna get all over his car, but what can he do?  It’s already on his t-shirt, one of those white charity ones that say Pride in a big rainbow.

The door goes and Robert shouts for Aaron to let him know he’s in the bedroom. He’s pretty much done as it is. Phone, keys on the bed, he stops when he sees Aaron in the doorway.

In the black version of the t-shirt he’s wearing, black jeans, Aaron has matching Pride flags and glitter on his cheeks.

“Vic sorted me out,” He says by way of explanation.

“You’re coming?”

Aaron nods, “Yeah, it’s important to you.”

“Aaron, you don’t—”

“I know.”

Robert grins as he walks over and tries to give Aaron a kiss without smudging their faces. Aaron turns his away with a huff to cover a laugh.

“You look really gay,” Robert tells him when he finally looks at him.

“Ta,” Aaron’s voice is dipped in sarcasm and Robert picks up his wallet from the side and grabs his stuff off the bed.

“You’re not going to tell me I look bi?”

“You look summat.”

Robert frowns with a “Hey.”

Aaron laughs and shoves his hand in the back pocket of Robert’s jeans, “Let’s just go, alright?”

 

The music is pumping, the crowd is heaving and it’s _hot_.

There are pop-up drinks tents lining the way as Robert heads towards them with Aaron hanging on to the back of his shirt so that they don’t lose each other.

A bloke in go-go shorts goes past them with another one in lamé ones and Robert tries to imagine being that…secure.

Aaron taps the back of his head, “Keep going, perv.”

Robert shakes his head and manages to get to the closest tent and get them both a beer. They’ve not gone to the actual parade itself with the walk/marching aspect, but more like the afterparty when everyone is cutting loose.

There’s a girl in a pretty bisexual coloured skirt - is that a thing? - selling at the beer tent. It bleeds the colours together as she twirls.

Aaron looks around with his usual frown and nose wrinkle that Robert finds horrifically cute, “What about this is fun?”

Robert smiles and cups the back of Aaron’s head, encouraging him to tip it back, “This.”

He kisses him, slow at first, nothing major and then he licks the seam of his lips to find a way inside to the apparent cheers of people around them.

Aaron’s lips look shiny and he’s already got glitter in his beard. Robert thinks that next year Aaron should go full glitter beard. Maybe there’s a tent for it this year, it’s cool, the kids told him it was. Right before they said he’d never get it done because he can’t grow a beard. Cocky little shits.

Still, Robert flushes though because he hadn’t intended to make a spectacle of them, but Aaron takes it in his stride and wraps his arm around Robert’s waist.

The bisexual girl smiles, “You guys are cute.”

They finish their beers and get fresh ones as they start to mill about a bit more. There are face painting and glitter tents, and Robert teases Aaron about getting his reapplied and getting a glitter beard, but he holds firm, shying away with his face hidden away in Robert’s neck.

The more interesting stuff, the talks, and the storytelling happen on a big platform at the centre of one end. They talk about Marsha, they talk about the AIDS crisis, they talk about everything. They teach the younger generation about their history. As a teacher, it’s amazing to see them so engaged with where they came from.

The day turns to night and then the party happens. The platform becomes a stage and it kicks off with a drag queen named Des’ree with a warm chocolate-y voice telling them to ‘get down and _dirty’_ and Robert laughs as he stands behind Aaron, arms up on his shoulders as he leans back, head under Robert’s chin. They happen to be in the firing line as Des’ree gets down and she throws a puff of glitter at them and it coats them down to it being in Robert’s eyelashes. He turns Aaron around and it’s obvious against his dark hair. He looks like a disco ball.

With Aaron looking sparkly and just a little bit annoyed, Robert’s heart seizes. He loves this man so damn much. It’s like a switch flips and Robert _knows_. He’s going to marry Aaron. He’s going to buy him a ring and propose because he’s perfect and Robert wants to spend his life with him.

“What?” Aaron asks him bluntly and Robert feels warmth spread inside him.

“Nothing,” Robert tips his face up again and this time Aaron is prepared, and he doesn’t hold back, he pulls Robert down to him and they kiss like no one’s watching. Robert smears Aaron’s Pride flags with his thumbs on Aaron’s cheekbones as Aaron teases him with his tongue, pulling away with bright eyes and a wicked smile.

“Looks like someone needs some cold water,” a jolly voice calls out to their left.

It’s another couple, two blokes, older, cuddled up like they were before they were glitter bombed.

Aaron looks like he’s about to rare up, so Robert touches his shoulder, “It’s our first Pride together.”

The men both smile at each other, one of them scrunching their face up in thought, “Gosh, I can’t even remember our first Pride together.”

“You drank too much and threw up on my shoes.”

“Oh yeah, that’s why I’ve forgotten,” the taller of the two glares at the other.

“It’s alright, babe.” The joke in it is plain, and this whole time, they haven’t let each other go. Robert looks to see, and he’s right, they’ve got matching gold bands on their fingers.

Aaron nods, making a face, “Well, cheers.”

They don’t take it for Aaron being a knob and wave them on, Robert takes Aaron’s hand and leads him off.

“They were being nice.”

“They were butting in,” Aaron grumbles and Robert puts his hands on Aaron’s hips.

“Oh, is that it? That’s what upset you?”

Aaron narrows his gaze.

Robert shuffles forward, putting both his hands in Aaron’s back pockets instead of one like he did earlier, “Come on then, kiss me.”

Aaron’s eyes shift as he looks around, but it’s all pretty much the same. People dancing, people cuddling, people kissing. No one cares what they’re doing.

Maybe it’s because of what he’s decided, but Robert traps Aaron’s face with his hands and he tells him: “Pride is me being proud of my love for you.”

They kiss again, and it’s easy, unhurried and reminiscent of kisses they’ve shared, spent in bed and deeply satisfied.

“I love my gay boyfriend,” Robert covers his teeth with his lips and Aaron rolls his eyes while telling him to shut up before slapping his belly backhandedly. “Tell me you love me, Aaron.”

“Aaron.”

He’s walking away, and Robert has to chase after him, “Hey, come on, tell me.”

He’s completely unready when Aaron turns back around and drags him down a barely lit alley and knocks him up against a wall. They grab at each other, grasping and pulling and Robert feels it stir in his groin as Aaron presses in hard on him. Robert holds on to Aaron’s belt when he tries to pull back, not letting him go, stealing more of those ardent kisses.

Aaron cocks his head, “Let’s go home.”

Robert lets that sink into his brain: _go home, have sex_.

He pushes Aaron against the opposing wall, looms over him with heavy breaths before he almost kisses him, “I love you.”

He doesn’t close the gap, he hovers and when Aaron opens his mouth a little and tries to catch him, Robert moves back.

“I love you,” Aaron says as he leans his head back on the wall. Robert nods, coming back into their joint space and they share one last longing kiss.

 

*

 

This year, they’re engaged. And that’s not all.

Robert is looking at their clothes and Aaron is wearing another black t-shirt, “Don’t you own any other items of clothing?”

“I’m gay whether I wear black or not,” Aaron shrugs and Robert sighs.

He’s got ripped shorts this year because it’s hot, hotter than last year, and Aaron is depressing him with how much black he’s wearing.

Luke, on the other hand, has a bright paisley shirt on, “Just let ‘im wear what he wants, sir.”

With the permission of his mum, Robert and Aaron are taking Luke with them to Pride for his first experience. She had to work otherwise she would have taken him. However, they are not expecting George.

No one ever expects George. Mostly because he’s brought the rest of the football team.

“Lads don’t let lads go to Pride alone,” he announces as he enters the classroom. The school’s empty, they rent out the playing fields on the weekend, so it made sense to meet up here.

Robert looks at him, confused, “George, what are you doing here?”

“You heard me.”

“You know it’s going to be a lot of gay, lesbian, bisexual, tran—”

“I have been to Pride, sir,” George looks at him with exasperation, “My uncle took when I was small. Said I weeded out the bad ones. Now I have to do that for Luke.”

It’s a lovely sentiment, “I think Luke can—”

“He can, but it’s better with mates.”

“Okay, we’ll have to all get the bus then.”

George shouts, “Roadtrip!”

And Robert despairs at Aaron.

“We’ll find you some glitter and it’ll be alright,” Aaron assures him as he rubs his back. “I’ll even get my beard done.”

“Full rainbow?”

“Full rainbow.”

 

 

It’s the most stressful four hours of Robert’s life because they lose the boys the moment they get there. He catches Peter and almost strangles him.

“ _Where is George?_ ” He demands.

“You don’t want to know, sir.”

“What do you mean, I don’t want to know? What has he done now?” He’s expecting fire, water, a possible flood, something apocalypse-related.

Peter points over to the edges of the throng of people and Robert sees George.

He can definitely see George.

George with his tongue down Luke’s throat. He turns around and exhales, “We never saw that.”

“No, sir.”

 

Aaron looks serene about the whole thing when Robert tells him, “You knew, didn’t you?”

“What? That George is bi?”

Robert folds his arms.

“I don’t think he knew. He just found himself getting all het up about Luke possibly having a boyfriend.”

“So, he came here to stop Luke from meeting someone.”

“Looks like.”

“And ended up snogging him instead.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Let’s not have kids, this is too much,” Robert rests his head on Aaron’s shoulder and feels relief when Aaron rubs the back of his hair.

 

Luke has the sense to look sheepish when they come back, mouths red and clothes askew. George stares everyone down and takes Luke’s hand like he’s a mini-Aaron Dingle in training.

Robert does stare back, “I’m happy for you, but you pull shit like that again, I’ll kill you.”

Another puffball of glitter descends over them and Robert just gives in. He grabs his fiancé and takes him out on the ‘dancefloor’ because fuck it, it’s Pride and there’s a lot to be proud of this year.


	5. Write a romantic scene/story between your favourite Robert ship;

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short soul marked fic.

One year.

One whole year since Robert’s life fell completely to pieces over a chance meeting.

 

 

He was late, a bottle of champagne in his passenger seat, chasing down a florist’s that wasn’t currently bogged down in Valentine’s day pre-orders to get his wife, Chrissie, a bouquet for their second wedding anniversary. Normally, he’s better at planning, putting the order in mid-January, but rather than their marriage easing tensions, her father, Lawrence, was riding him harder than ever over project overheads and nitpicky nonsense that he wouldn’t ever bother with if it wasn’t Robert handling the accounts.

He was well aware that it’s not the season for peonies, but that’s why he’s got more cash than they’d see in a week for them to find him some. Robert sighed and took a call from Chrissie outside, her pouting at his disappearing act, and he tried to reassure her that he’ll be back soon.

Only for someone to crash right into him.

“Hey—!” They both twisted, and Robert felt an elbow dig into his back and drag forward with the person’s momentum.

Robert glared, “Wow, sorry wouldn’t go amiss, mate!”

Nothing. 

The bloke was dressed in a dark hoodie and jeans, hoodie up, and he carried on with hands held up. _Not my problem_.

“Dick. No, sorry, not you,” Robert headed back into the shop, got his roses and peonies and a rush from the traces of fear in the shop assistant’s face when she offered him the flowers in the hopes of pleasing him.

He winked at her and got back into his car.

 

It should have been a nice dinner, presents, sex; anniversary in the bag. But Chrissie touched his back as he was getting changed from his shower, her hands bracketing his hips to hold him still.

“Robert, what is that?”

“What’s what?”

He tries to look over his shoulder, but he can’t see what she’s looking at, pulling at his skin next to his spine at the bottom of his back.

Her hands go off him like she’s been scalded.

“What?” Now, he’s worried. He turns to the mirror in their room and he can see a purpling splodge that wasn’t there before. It’s not a bruise, it’s too solid, too defined to be. It looks like a birthmark.

“What were you doing before you came home?” She accuses him.

Robert looks at her with incredulity: “I was at the florist’s, picking up _your flowers_.”

Chrissie shakes her head, “No, that’s—that’s a…”

He knows what it is. It’s a soulmark. They occur when a person’s soulmate touches them for the first time.

“I got bumped into when I was on the phone, it doesn’t matter.”

She’s still shaking her head, “No.”

“Chrissie,” Robert pleads with her, begs her silently to be reasonable.

“I won’t be second best,” is all she says before she forces Robert to sleep in the spare room.

He never moves back into the master.

 

*

 

Robert is sitting in his sister’s kitchen where he’s been living for the last six months, forced to come home when Chrissie threw him out. Apparently, it was different when they both were markless. Now all she can see is some other woman’s claim on her husband.

He pointed out he was still her husband.

“Until you meet this tart and you leave me for dust, no thank you.”

Robert is very careful to not mention that it was a bloke that bumped into him. He can still smell his cheap aftershave in his nose as they spun out, Robert catching himself as the other man tried to go through him. It’s not necessary. He’s never seen him again, and Robert loves his wife.

Still, she’s trying to divorce him and the fact that Robert has never met or touched his soulmate to complete the connection is working in his favour.

Victoria sits with her cup of tea, “Maybe you should.”

“Should what?”

“Try to find her.”

Robert narrows his eyes, “I love Chrissie.”

She throws her hands up, “You know how rare soulmarks are, Robert, there’s a woman out there who is perfect for you. Your other half.”

He’s not unaware of how Vic isn’t Chrissie’s hugest fan. What he loves about his sister is that her heart is so big that it knows no limits. There isn’t a person not worth saving in her eyes. Chrissie is a bit more discerning and that aggravates Vic.

But her comment is about Andy. As much as he loves his wife, Katie, neither one of them have a mark. In Vic’s eyes, they should have marks and if two people as in love as them, don’t, then it must be amazing to truly be marked.

“So, you think this random is better for me than the woman I’ve loved, lived with, and gotten to know over the last four years? That I _married_?”

Victoria uncharacteristically doesn’t acquiesce.

“I’m going to be honest, Robert. I think you think you love Chrissie, but if you guys really loved each other, she’d have fought for you. Not just thrown you out the moment it got hard.”

It’s the part of this he doesn’t like to think about. How he’s pretty much seen as used goods by his wife. Not to mention what she’d say if she knew. Sometimes he thinks he remembers something, a detail about his soulmate, like Robert thinks his eyes were blue, but he shoves it away. _It’s not meant to be_.

He and Chrissie are.

 

*

 

Robert is having an amazing day.

He’s got served with divorce papers and his Audi has broken down. He manages to get it into the Dingles’ garage and he’s being fobbed off by Dan about waiting times, so he storms ‘round, Dan trailing behind him.

“Hello?” He demands.

Someone wheels out from under his car. Robert sees red when he clunks his wrench down on Robert’s paint job.

Robert grabs his wrist, covered in a purple plastic glove, to take it off, and he gets his arm thrown off, “Oi.”

“Have some professionalism,” Robert throws back and he’s pinned by angry eyes.

Lips turned down, the mechanic looks unimpressed, “Then lemme ask you, professionally, _to get out_.”

Robert doesn’t move, waits as his personal space is invaded. He isn’t afraid.

He simply says, “I want this done in the next three hours.”

“It’ll be ready tomorrow.”

That’s a cop, it’s a piss easy job, and he says so.

“Maybe, too bad.”

Robert juts his chin out, “Get it done.”

“Or what?” Only it sounds like ‘wot’.

 _We’ll see what_.

 

 

He makes it his mission to figure out who this gobby twat is. Vic frowns at him when he’s kicking off in the living room.

“You mean Aaron?”

“Aaron?”

“Older than me, beard, a bit like a mini-Cain?”

Robert leans forward, “Yeah, sounds like. What else you got?”

 

 

Aaron lives in the pub Robert's step-mum runs with his. Robert folds his arms as he leans against the kitchen counter when Aaron comes in for his lunch. A thing he found out from Vic too.

“Hiya.”

Aaron does a double-take, but it’s subtle. Robert is impressed. Other than that, he ignores Robert, shoves him out the way of the fridge to get out the makings for a sandwich.

“Aaron Livesy, twenty-four, works for his uncle in the family garage after a trip to France—” Robert just starts rattling off inane facts he’s learned, and Aaron sits at the table, shuffling his chair under and pointedly eating his sandwich in silence.

Robert moves from his post, putting one hand down on the table and one on the back of Aaron’s chair, “This one I find particularly interesting—”

Aaron’s face doesn’t change.

“Gay, came out at 18—”

Aaron knocks his chair over as he stands. He turns to face Robert and Robert is struck by how pretty his blue eyes are. Just before Aaron grabs his shirt and drives him back. Robert oofs as he hits the wall between the window and the counter.

“Keep goin’, _mate_.”

Robert loves a good wind-up, and Aaron is prime for it, “Oh, I don’t know…”

“G’on, say it.”

He smiles until he catches Aaron’s wrist out the corner of his eye. Free from his work gloves, he has the imprint of three fingers and a thumb on his skin.

Robert pushes back.

“When did you get that?” It’s pointless in asking because Aaron’s face screws up in confusion before he looks at his own hand, turning it over, shifting the strong bones of his forearm, and back again.

“ _No_ ,” Robert breathes.

Those stupid blue eyes that Robert _knows_ he’s seen before. They widen as they take in the physical change to what has always been his body.

Robert eeks ‘round Aaron with disgust. This can’t be happening to him, his life is planned out. _Chrissie_ is his future.

Aaron grabs his shoulder, and Robert feels it in his mark, the moment of recognition telling him that Aaron knows it too. They’re soulmarked.

“I’m married,” Robert throws at Aaron, who stands with his hands loose by his sides now. He accepts it with a nod, and Robert feels riled up.

 _Fight for me_. He shakes his head.

“I love my wife, I don’t love you.”

“I don’t love you either,” Aaron folds his arms.

“I’m glad we understand each other.”

 

*

 

His car is outside Vic’s with a free of charge invoice on the windscreen later that day. Robert feels relieved. And sad. He screws it up and throws it in the bin before he starts to pack his bags.

“Chrissie!” He exclaims when he calls her, giving it one last go.

She starts to say bye to him as he tries to stop her, “Wait—wait. I love you, I know you love me.”

“It’s not about love, Robert, you’re not mine to love.”

 

He ends up drowning his sorrows in the pub.  Robert curses when Aaron comes in with his mate, Adam.

He stalks off out the back and Aaron’s right behind him.

“Leave me alone.”

“You’re drunk.”

“Outstanding observation,” Robert looks around for the bottle of whiskey he knows Diane keeps around.

“Stop being a twat.”

Robert stands up and turns around, “Stop being—”

Aaron raises his eyebrows.

“You _ruined_ my life.”

“Not much of a life if it got ruined,” Aaron says flippantly.

“You wear Lynx like you’re still _fifteen_!”

Aaron draws back a bit at that, “How’d you—?”

Robert wants to crawl into a hole and die. Blue eyes and the smell of generic brand deodorant was all he had of his soulmate. He went into Superdrug and Boots and bought every brand he could get his hands on to find it, the one that Aaron was wearing that day. Chrissie thought it was some ode to nostalgia because he kept it on his chest of drawers, never wearing it, but he’d sniff it just to feel closer to _him_.

Aaron steps into his space and Robert catches a whiff of that smell. He hates it. He loves it. He can’t stop himself from burying his nose in the collar of Aaron’s hoodie.

 _You don’t know how long I waited for you_.

Fingers gravitate to Robert’s mark, and he clenches up, pulling away.

“You’re stupid,” Robert tells Aaron before he goes into the toilet and throws up.

 

*

 

Aaron gets bold after that, Robert notices. He comes to have tea a lot with Vic, and to play Mario Kart with Adam.

Victoria sighs, “Come on, Rob, let’s leave the boys to it.”

Robert isn’t letting Aaron out of his sight. Suspicious and side-eying Robert as he goes about his morning, Aaron is onto something.

Aaron pauses the game, “Wanna join in?”

Adam frowns but doesn’t say anything.

Robert stands up and pushes his jeans down to straighten them, “No.”

Aaron seems unfazed.

 

He’s still there when Robert and Victoria get back from shopping, can popped, relaxing, and even Vic joins them with a glass of wine. Robert heads up to his room, the feel of Aaron’s gaze on his back, his mark throbbing. He can hear him laughing with Adam and his sister for most of the night, and it hits him right in his chest.

Vic comes up, switching lights off and Adam bumbles behind her. Robert opens his door, and Aaron is putting his jacket on at the bottom of the stairs.

Aaron doesn’t say anything, but Robert hears volumes. He feels self-conscious in his t-shirt and shorts, only when Aaron looks at him, takes him in, Robert feels warm.

 

At the bottom of the stairs, Robert shoves Aaron against the wall and kisses him. He pulls Aaron’s coat sleeve down enough to fit his fingers around the mark they created, pinning it beside Aaron’s head as Aaron pushes his hand up Robert’s t-shirt to touch his own mark, where he literally shoved himself into Robert’s life the first time. Robert feels a waterfall of _everything_ inside. He craves it as Aaron breaks away from him.

The water turns ice cold with a thump from upstairs, and Robert backs away, “It doesn’t change anything.”

 

*

 

Aaron disappears.

 

Robert is bereft.

 

He finds Aaron at work by accident, sitting in a beat-up old Ford and he sits with him in the passenger side. It’s strange, but it feels like his soul hurts. It’s being stretched too tight inside, and it’s tearing at its seams.

He wraps his fingers around Aaron’s wrist, and it eases.

Aaron doesn’t say anything, but Robert feels for the first time that he has a job. A duty. His soul needs to wrap up another’s and protect it from harm.

 

He signs his divorce papers the next day.

 

*

 

Robert didn’t tell Aaron that he did, but he comes to the house because he’s heard. Or maybe he felt it.

He touches Robert’s back with soft fingertips, and Robert feels at peace.

 

They go upstairs and explain their lives to each other.

 

“What was that the other day? In the garage?” Robert asks, and Aaron shakes his head. He wants to tell Aaron that he’s his, that they’re supposed to do this together, aren’t they? He wills Aaron to feel safe, to rely on their bond, but he’s the one who said he couldn’t.

“I’m sorry.”

Aaron looks at him, “What for?”

“For everything.”

They share a bed to sleep in and in the twilight hours, Aaron shares what should fracture his soul, but Robert holds it inside himself and keeps it safe. _Like he’s supposed to_.

 

*

 

When it comes out, people question Robert’s role in all of this. He stands tall and tells them, “He’s my soulmate.”

They don’t get his mark, not as obvious as Aaron’s, but Aaron keeps his hidden as much as he can with sleeves or ‘sweater paws’ as his niece Sarah calls them. So, they question it and mythologise about it. He doesn’t care. He stands by his soulmate’s side and watches and feels as his soul soars free with a guilty verdict.

Aaron invites him to his bed with a cocked eyebrow and a smile.

Robert realises that they weren’t fractured pieces that needed putting back together, but that they were both the same, needing the chance to blend.

“I still can’t believe you remembered that I wore Lynx,” Aaron laughs at him as they’re eating breakfast. It becomes a bit of a joke to everyone, and Robert can take it until he can’t, Aaron putting his hand on his knee and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

 

It’s only when he proposes that Aaron reveals he remembered a bloke with freckles, and that he searched every man he met for the same cluster of brown flecks that Robert has on the bridge of his nose and under his eyes.

 

On their wedding day, when Aaron slips Robert’s ring back onto his finger, his mark disappears. They check after, Robert’s is gone too.

They’re not soulmarked now. They’re soulbonded. Job done, they no longer need a guide to lead them back to each other. Robert would know Aaron anywhere.

“Do you miss it?" Robert asks, his more present and prevalent than Robert’s.

Aaron shakes his head, “Why would I? I have you.”

He’s about to be really cheesy and he forewarns his husband before he says, “You didn’t ruin my life, you made my life.”

Aaron stares at him before pushing him over to his side of the bed with a laugh. Robert laughs too because he’s happy. He’s loved. He’s needed. He has everything in his life because of Aaron.

They cuddle and watch the fireworks from their honeymoon suite, one soul in two bodies. The way it’s supposed to be.


	6. Write a scene/story about a topic you’d wish Emmerdale would give to Robert. (It can be fun, it can be serious anything you’d like.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robert refuses for Lachlan's legacy to be five victims. (Loosely based on spoilers)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Rebecca being in a story isn't for you, this isn't for you. Just so you know. Also, this is our final story in Robert Week 2018, wowza. It's been a pleasure.

With one misdirect down, they’re moving Lachlan to a more secure prison. He’s fully embracing his status now as ‘the serial killer you never knew’. Robert has read article after article digging into Lachlan and his background, them trying to find a motive in insanity. None of them mention the people left behind. The cousin he’s currently left motherless as he dangles her in front of them like a noose.

He wants to see Belle. Robert refuses to tell her.

“Then tell Seb Mummy has gone away for a very long time.”

Robert grinds his teeth, “I’ll tell him the truth. You murdered her because in your sick mind you think Belle will still love you. She won’t because she already doesn’t.”

He doesn’t realise he’s holding his breath until Lachlan storms off, unable to get his way, and refuses to come back and finish their conversation

 

 

Robert comes home, and Belle is waiting for him amongst the rest of the Dingles in his living room. Her still bruised face tells him that she knows. She knows she’s what Lachlan asked for, so she comes up and takes Robert’s wrist, “If it brings Rebecca home…”

“I can’t ask you to—”

“It’s not for you. It’s for her, and for Seb,” She looks back at where Seb is on Aaron’s lap, Aaron looking at them both with his brows drawn in with worry.

The rest of the Dingles keep silent because they know this is Belle’s decision. The stakes are too high to take that choice from her.

“I’ll take you tomorrow,” Robert tells her, and she nods before she takes her seat back next to Aaron, her hand reaching out to touch Seb’s little one.

Robert looks around at these faces that are here supporting him and he’s speechless.

 

 

 

That night, Aaron leans his chin on Robert’s shoulder, sitting sideways next to him on their bed, “He’s playin’ you.”

“I know.”

Strong fingers brush against his cut forehead, the bruising healed and the wound remaining. Robert turns and looks at his husband. All he wants is to stay here, to be with Aaron and to feel safe. But he can’t. He owes Rebecca, and he owes Seb. He owes Chrissie, who he loved once upon a time, to put a stop to the madness.

He lets Aaron tuck him up while he shuts down the rest of the house for the night, even taking Seb out of his crib for a little cuddle and a bottle before patting him and putting him back down.

Aaron slips under the duvet and Robert glomps onto him like an octopus.

“I need you here, I need you safe,” Robert murmurs and Aaron holds his arms where he’s got them wrapped around his waist. “Please, for me.”

“Then you come back to me.”

Robert looks up, and Aaron is looking down at him, “You promised me a life, Robert. I’ll hold you to that.”

It keeps him up a lot longer than it should, thinking about that. All he wants is to make Aaron happy. He keeps it in the forefront of his mind as sleep finally washes over him.

 

*

 

Standing in the prison hallway with Belle, he doesn’t know her all that well, but despite everything she’s been through, she squares her shoulders and waits for them to let her in.

She doesn’t start shaking until she’s back in the outside world and Robert wraps his arms around her and tells her she’s safe again.

“I know where Rebecca is,” She tells him with determined eyes.

“Okay—”

“I’m coming with you.”

Robert looks at Belle as she strides towards the car. It’s funny, he sees traces of Aaron in her. Of course, he would, they’re family, but it’s like he has a piece of his husband here with him, the fire that he loves so much. He texts Aaron to keep him updated and he sends another one after it that says: **u dingles r a bossy lot x**

Aaron replies, **fam bsns is srs bsns**.

It makes him smile, and he sets up his Satnav to the address Belle gives him.

It’s in the middle of nowhere, obviously.

There’s an eerie quiet to the old abandoned house they arrive up at. It looks Georgian, three floors, old brickwork. Robert makes Belle go behind him, but she’s on alert.

The floors are distressed, some cracking up and some just plain broken. Robert is glad to have had the foresight to bring a torch. He doesn’t want to risk setting anyone off by opening the big thick velvet curtains.

What’s the most off-putting is that the silence continues. There is no evidence of life on the whole ground floor. He looks back at Belle and they both nod to agree to go back to the big staircase that is just inside the front door.

They both approach it with hesitancy and find relief when it doesn’t creak with each stair under them, Belle only stepping where Robert has stepped before her.

There is a door ajar and Robert listens to see if he can hear anything. Nothing. He moves to the next door.

Belle taps him on the shoulder, and there is one door on the right, at the end, that’s closed.

His apprehension is high as they reach the door. He tightens his hand around the doorknob and it turns with ease.

There’s no movement in the room, so Robert swings it open and moves quickly inside.

It’s Rebecca. She’s here, she’s restrained, but she’s alive. Belle comes in after him, rushing to check Rebecca’s wrists in the restraints. They’re lined with wool like on a psychiatric ward.

He notices that her eyes are glazed as Belle tries to help her.

“Rebecca? Bex?” Robert calls her and she looks at him.

Her face screws up in horror, “No!”

Belle looks at him with panic as she’s trying to get the buckles undone.

“Bex, it’s alright, calm down.”

Robert walks around to the other side to help to free her other wrist.

“No, you can’t be here,” Rebecca cries, her hair plastered to her forehead with sweat.

Robert shakes his head, he doesn’t understand, “We’re here to help.”

She looks at him, eyes still glassy so Robert knows she’s been dosed with something, “If you’re here, where’s Seb?”

Rebecca’s face slowly crumbles as she cries for her baby.

Robert shushes her, “No, no, Seb—Seb is safe. He’s with Aaron.”

“He is?” Her lip wibbles and Robert nods and smiles.

“Yeah, I left Seb with him this morning. They were going to the café, and then maybe swimming again.”

“Swimming.” Rebecca latches onto the word, so even though her tears don’t stop, she seems less distressed.

Belle gets her free her side and asks Rebecca, “Rebecca, is there someone else here with you?”

Rebecca lolls her head to the side, “Here?”

“In the house?”

She nods, “A nurse.”

“Male or female,” Belle asks and Rebecca frowns. Maybe she doesn’t know, or she’s forgotten.

“She said I was crazy. She made me think I was crazy.”

Robert gets Rebecca free his side, finally, and squeezes her shoulder, “You’re not. Lachlan, he killed—”

“My dad, _my sister_ ,” Rebecca lets out a hard sob for Chrissie, grabbing both of Robert and Belle’s arms as she starts to hyperventilate.

Robert pushes Rebecca’s back as he tells her to put her knees up, “Okay, breathe.”

“We need to go,” Belle states the obvious.

Rebecca has a gown on, but Robert puts his jacket over her just in case she’s cold as he helps her to stand. She’s got no shoes on, so they’ll have to make do.

They get her down the corridor when they hear an ominous door slam.

Belle looks at him, “Robert.”

Robert hoists Rebecca up more, “Let’s go.”

They’re on the stairs and another door, closer, slams.

He digs his keys out of his pocket and offers them to Belle, Rebecca watching the exchange silently, “If you need ‘em.”

She looks at him, horrified, “No.”

“She needs someone to get her out and you’ve suffered enough.” Robert shakes the keys in front of Belle, and she refuses to take them. “Belle, please. You said it was for Seb. He needs his mum.”

“He needs his dad too.”

Robert leans Rebecca on Belle and runs over to the closest open door, slamming it shut, “Now _go_.”

Belle looks at him for a second before she shakes her head, turning to take Rebecca to the door.

“Belle.”

She looks back at him.

“Tell Aaron—”

“You tell Aaron.”

And there it is. That unyielding Dingle spirit. He lets it fill him up as he goes to slam another door.

The design of the house means he and whoever is here with him are currently at opposite ends, Robert having moved away from the middle and them choosing the opposite way to him. He’s got one shot at running back to the middle and getting out.

He touches the front door when the first shot goes off next to his head.

Robert flings it open and almost rolls into the gravel as he stumbles out. He sees that Belle is still parked and as much as he’s angry with her, he’s grateful.

Another shot whizzes past him.

He can see Belle getting out of the car and he mentally wills her not to.

He can see her, and she screams at the top of her lungs, “Hey!”

It distracts the shooter. Robert still feels it rip through his leg. He keeps going. He keeps his thoughts on Aaron and his promise, the one Aaron is going to drag from him in years of wedded bliss. Of all the milestones Seb is yet to have. Liv too.

Robert opens the passenger side door and squashes himself onto Rebecca who screams at him because he’s bleeding on her.

“ _Just drive!_ ” He demands of Belle as she throws herself into the driver’s seat and puts his car in gear.

Belle doesn’t bother with a police station, she just follows the signs to the nearest hospital.

Robert stumbles out, and someone guides him to a wheelchair. He doesn’t even think they’re a medical professionals, but then nurses swarm him, Rebecca crying out behind him that she doesn’t want to go.

“Rebecca! Stay with Belle, she’ll take care of you.”

It’s the first time that Robert admits to himself that he feels hot. He’s sweating under his shirt as they take him into A&E and strip him of his trousers. His mouth feels like it’s on a slant, that his words are slurring and sloping as he tries to explain.

“There is definitely something on this bullet. We need bloods, we need to know what’s in his system.”

 

 

 

Robert falls in and out of consciousness. It’s searing hot and white one minute. Then it’s yellow and glaring. His body feels like fire and tore open at his thigh.

He feels restless and unable to open his eyes. People are talking and he’s like _hey, I’m here_.

“You think he did it on purpose then?”

Robert knows that voice.

 _Aaron_.

But he sounds sad.

“The fake nurse he had gave him up. She was supposed to care for Rebecca, keep her sedated until Robert showed up. She said he said that ‘he had to get rid of all of the monsters’.”

 _Belle_ , he thinks it’s her. It’s soft like her. No, hard too, hard like steel.

“And then what? Shoot him with a poison bullet?”

“Is he any better?”

“His kidneys are shutting down. They—they want me to let him go.”

_No! I’M HERE!_

“It’s been a long time.”

“I ain’t giving up on him.”

Belle sighs, “Maybe it’s not giving up on him; maybe it’s giving him peace.”

“To what? Die a hero’s death? Satisfy Lachlan’s sick ideas that Robert is to blame because he’s a psycho?” Aaron breathes out heavily, “Sorry.”

“I get it, you love him.”

“That’s why I’m gonna stay here till it’s done. It’s what he’d do for me.”

Robert wills his hand to move, to take Aaron’s, or to just touch any part of him. Nothing happens.

He hasn’t given up. He wants their life together.

 _If my damn hand would just move_.

 

 

 

 

It’s a wintery bright day and one specialist hospital move later, when Robert finally opens his eyes. He coughs, or he coughs mentally, because nothing moves.

Aaron’s hand is holding his, he’s reading a Sun newspaper with a plastic cup of tea. If Robert thinks really hard, he can get his middle and ring finger to move next to Aaron’s, drawing attention to his wedding ring.

At first, it’s too small a movement and Aaron doesn’t pick up on it, putting his tea back on Robert’s table, he sees it out the corner of his eye.

“Robert? Robert?!” He looks up at Robert’s face and sees his open eyes. The relief is instantaneous. Aaron kisses all over his face and his mouth.

He wishes with his whole being he could kiss his husband back, but he can’t, so he blinks, and Aaron gets it.

“You can’t talk?” More blinks, “Okay, I’ll tell the doctor.”

A doctor comes in and runs tests on him with a look of incredulity.

“Mr. Sugden, you are quite possibly the luckiest person I’ve ever met.”

Robert attempts to move his eyebrows, but only one moves. It makes him look like a dick.

“At this rate, all of the paralysis you’re experiencing should be gone within the next few weeks; truly amazing.”

Aaron ignores all of it, “And then I can take him home?”

“Before then. I’m sure you and your husband will be quite ready for that. He might need some walking aids and adaption—”

“We’ll sort it.” Aaron cuts him off and squeezes Robert’s hand.

Robert gets control of his face pretty quickly, but when Liv comes to see him, he stares at her blankly for a second before he grins, and she slaps his chest.

Aaron brings Seb during the day and takes him to Diane’s at night so that Aaron can spend them with Robert. It’s a lot of traveling, but Aaron won’t hear it when Robert says he should take a night off.

“Why?” He holds a hand out like ‘are you mad?’

“Love you.”

“Yeah, me too, which is why I gotta watch ya. I don’t, and shit like this happens.”

Robert hears the guilt in Aaron’s voice like he thinks he could have prevented any of it, “Not your fault. Mine. Lachlan’s.”

His speech is still somewhat impaired, but he makes do.

“Doesn’t make me feel any better,” Aaron replies to him as he aggressively folds Robert’s bedding.

Robert waggles his fingers, and Aaron takes them, “Forever now.”

Aaron stops and looks at him. Maybe his face looks earnest, but Aaron leans down and hides his face in Robert’s neck for a moment and squeezes his other shoulder as he cries intensely for an abrupt few seconds. He stands back up and wipes his face.

“Forever, yeah?” He reiterates, and Robert smiles.

“Me ‘n you.”

His family, Vic, Diane, Doug adjacent, come before Aaron lets any of the Dingles come. He’s horrified to hear of Grace’s passing, and he keeps silent on it the one time Chas comes to see him early on. She fusses over him and he lets her. He manages to rub her hand with his finger and she smiles tightly at him and he supposes that’s more than anyone can ask from her right now.

 

 

 

When he’s sitting up in bed on his own and playing cards with Liv, he’s allowed more visitors, and he smiles as each one comes to say hi.

Belle is one of the first.

“You saved my life,” Robert tells her in some of the first complete sentences he makes. “Thank you.”

“You saved mine first.”

His eyes well up because he doesn’t know where he’d be without her. It comes to him in the night when he’s trying to sleep; her driving erratically, shouting at him, “Robert! Wake up! Rebecca, don’t let him go to sleep.”

She brings Rebecca and Seb with her one time, and Aaron takes Seb with him to the coffee machine while Rebecca sits next to him and reads what she’s written in her little book.

_Robert saved you._

_Belle saved you._

_Robert got shot helping you and he’s poorly now._

_Robert is getting better._

**_Thank Robert_ ** _._

So, she does, and she says sorry for what happened too.

“It’s bits and pieces, the barristers don’t think I’m a strong witness for what happened, but—”

What Lachlan did. The crash.

“I’m going to do my bit to bring him down.”

“Thank you.” He pats her hand, and she smiles, pained, and he tries to turn a bit more towards her, “’M sorry too.”

“I didn’t try to find you; before.” He gets frustrated with how stilted his speech can be, but she gets it. Maybe better than anyone.

“Call it quits?” She offers in a bright tone. It’s still odd, how her injury has affected her.

“Quits.”

“I’ll leave Seb with Aaron, shall I?” Rebecca picks up her bag, and Robert nods.

“Be happy, Rebecca.” He means that. Honestly and deeply.

“You too.”

 

*

 

By the time the trial rolls around, no one has informed Lachlan of anything, so Robert gets the biggest kick of standing up in the gallery and letting himself be seen. His leg is still weak from the gunshot, the scar tissue gnarling at the back of his thigh, and any other day he might have used a crutch, but today, today, he was going to walk tall.

Fingers laced with Aaron’s, the guilty verdict comes down for the murder of Chrissie. The murder of Lawrence. The murder of Gerry. Terry. The attempted murders of Sam, Belle, Robert twice, Liv and Rebecca. He gets away with none of it. He gets a very rare life to mean life verdict. He will never be released from prison because he is a horrific danger to society. The justice system has seen him for what he is and that he won’t change.

 

 

Remarried to Aaron, his face as Robert walked unaided with him for the first time down their ‘instagrammable’ aisle, so said Liv, is the thing that made all of this worth it. It’s an ugly chapter in his life, but it’s done. His husband, his marriage, _his family_ is his future. Robert opens the fresh new page on the rest of his life and he never looks back.


End file.
